Kevin W. Ward

Today, I found a great article on maintaining your online social presence.

Twitter

1. Find seven things worth retweeting in your general feed and share.
2. Reply to at least five things with full responses (not just “thanks”).
3. Point out a few people that you admire. It shows your mindset, too.
4. Follow back at least 10 folks. (I use an automated tool, but this is a personal preference. If you want such, I use SocialToo.)
5. 10 minutes of just polite two-way chit chat goes far.

Facebook

1. Check in on birthdays on the home page. (Want a secret? Send the birthday wish via Twitter or email. Feels even more deliberate.)
2. Respond to any comments on your wall.
3. Post a status message daily, something engaging or interesting.
4. Comment on at least seven people’s status messages or updates.
5. Share at least 3 interesting updates that you find.
6. If you belong to groups or fan pages, leave a new comment or two.

LinkedIn

1. Accept any invitations that make sense for you to accept.
2. Enter any recent business cards to invite them to LinkedIn (if you’re growing your network).
3. Drop into Q&A and see if you can volunteer 2-3 answers.
4. Provide 1 recommendation every few days for people you can honestly and fully recommend.
5. Add any relevant slide decks to the Slideshare app there, or books to the Amazon bookshelf.

Blogs

1. Visit your blog’s comments section and comment back on at least 5 replies.
2. If you have a few extra minutes, click through to the blogs of the commenters, and read a post or two and comment back.
3. While on those sites, use a tool like StumbleUpon and promote their good work.
4. Write the occasional post promoting the good work of a blog in your community.

It’s Not Easy

Maintaining your online presence takes time. If you look at all I’ve listed above, that’s easily more than an hour of work. But it depends what the value of that presence is to you, if you’re doing this as an individual, or to your organization, if you’re doing this on behalf of a brand or product.

We’ve traded dollars for time, in lots of these equations, as we see the return on our advertising spend diminish. It’s your choice whether you want to maintain an active online presence, or if you want to get away with a bit less.

What do you think?

Original Article: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/19-presence-management-chores-you-could-do-every-day/

Bookmark This

Hide Sites

The following study shows the advantages of gratitude. I urge you to use this powerful tool to change the world.

The simple extract:

Gratitude does the following according to the study listed above:

1. higher reported levels of:

• alertness
• enthusiasm
• determination
• optimism
• energy

2. gratitude group experienced:

• less depression
• less stress
• were more likely to help others
• exercised more regularly
• made more progress toward personal goals

3. People who feel grateful are also more likely to feel loved

4.  Gratitude encouraged a positive cycle of reciprocal kindness among people since one act of gratitude encourages another.

5. Gratitude works independently of faith… the benefits extend to the general population, regardless of faith or lack thereof.

6. anyone can increase their sense of well-being and create positive social effects just from counting their blessings.

Sources:

study – http://www.acfnewsource.org/religion/gratitude_theory.html

Aired on:
The Osgood File (CBS Radio Network): 7/12/02
The Osgood File (CBS Radio Network): 12/19/01

Contacts:

Michael McCullough: Professor of Psychology
Southern Methodist University
6425 Boaz Lane
Dallas, TX 75205

Robert Emmons: Professor of Psychology
University of California, Davis
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616

Bookmark This

Hide Sites

A repost of an article I read on Marketing Profs.

Sweat the Small Stuff

Here are just a few SMALL things you can do to make a big difference in your professional life:

• Become a mini-tasker: Instead of making a list of big, difficult-to-achieve goals, create an action list and re-envision those goals into “mini-tasks” you can actually accomplish on a day-to-day basis. “Mini-tasks”—successfully completed—can lead to the corner office.
• Add a minute: When you’ve completed a task, a memo, a quarterly budget—anything that you’re just glad to be done with—stop and tell yourself you still have one minute left. Spend just those 60 seconds rereading a troublesome paragraph, or adding up the numbers again.
• Embrace “stranger danger”: Make small talk with a total stranger. Standing in line at the supermarket or job fair? Take off your Bluetooth, take out your headphones, and talk to the person in line next to you. You’ll be surprised what opportunities come your way as a result.
• Be four again: Ask small questions. Don’t be afraid to ask why… and, more importantly, why not. A truly smart person knows what they don’t know… and goes about educating themselves.

SMALL is also the perfect approach for these challenging times. In today’s world, we’re faced with such overwhelming challenges that we often feel stuck and don’t even know where to start. But we can all tap into the unbelievable power we have within to “get going” and make a huge difference in our lives and the lives of others—just by starting SMALL.

Bookmark This

Hide Sites

The great Dali Lima Bean once told me a story about a poor farmer whose one horse ran away. All his neighbors came to him in sympathy, saying “What bad luck!”

“Maybe good, maybe bad, who knows.” said the farmer.

The next day the horse returned with several other wild horses. “What great luck!” his neighbors exclaimed.

“Maybe good, maybe bad, who knows.” said the farmer.

A few days later the farmer’s son was trying to tame one of the wild horses when he was thrown off and broke his leg. “What terrible luck!” his neighbors said.

“Maybe good, maybe bad, who knows.” said the farmer.

A week later the army came through the village to draft all the young men but seeing the broken leg of the farmer’s son, they left him in peace. “What wonderful luck!” the neighbors said.

“Maybe good, maybe bad, who knows.” the farmer responded. And so it goes.

Bookmark This

Hide Sites